This article is from page 20 of the 2012-05-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
THE chairman of the Ennis Joint Policing Committee (JPC) is to propose that all meetings are held in public.
Currently, the committee meetings between gardaí, local politicians, council officials and community representatives are held in private. There is one public meeting every year.
Now, the Chairman of the committee, Councillor Paul O’Shea (Lab) is calling for all meetings to be held in public.
Cllr O’Shea told last week’s meeting of Ennis Town Council that he had been calling for public sessions for the past two years. He said he would raise the matter at the next JPC meeting.
It followed criticisms of the current format by Cllr Frankie Neylon (Ind).
He said, “I was quite disappointed with the last meeting. You got the feeling that we could ask as many questions as we wanted but we weren’t going to get any answers.”
Cllr Neylon proposed that any sensitive matters could be dealt with before the public session of the meeting.
He said the current format is not doing any service to the public.
Town Manager Ger Dollard told the meeting that the JPC is a separate body from the council and, as such, any changes could only be implemented by the committee members.
Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG) said the JPC is a worthwhile project and had helped develop closer links between the council and Gardaí. He backed calls for meetings to be held in public.
Mayor of Ennis, Cllr Michael Guilfoyle (Ind) said the proposal was a matter for the JPC.
The next JPC meeting is due to take place on June 11.